2.4ghz items on 5ghz system workaround

I just checked and looks like they removed the cap. It says unlimited data :thinking:

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Did they change their minds again?

Maybe you are a valid candidate after all.

It seems that way :slight_smile:

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My present internet at home is 1Gigabit down and 50Mbs up, plenty for TeamViewer. TeamViewer requires 6Mbs down minimum and 1Mbs up. At the cottage I only have 10Mbs down and 1Mbs up. No issues with TeamViewer. The three v3’s soon to be four, sometimes struggle when viewed from home, but only sometimes and only when it is windy. To many leaves moving around. I don’t think the added expense of getting SL is justfiable.

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That was my second concern providing I am retired.

Yes, but I would not call it install. Its self install. You pay ~$600 for the kit, the latest is Gen 3. How you mount the antenna is entirely up to you (your problem). The hardware is estimated to actually cost 3 times what they charge us for the kit. They subsidize a big part so we can afford to jump in just like cell phone carriers did/do.

For residential its generally $120 a month. They’ve been through some regional adjustments because a few areas have more user density so they had to move more sats to cover and that cost them more, so they charge an extra $10, I think a month. I think roaming is $150.

It took me a while to notice this. Once I received my Gen 2 kit, I could no longer see accessories in the Starlink store for Gen 1 items. Mounts, poles, modems, cables, you only see ā€œstuffā€ that will work with your system. So, my guess is right now, you order, you will receive Gen 3 (that’s newest hardware and latest WiFi 6 or 6e modem). Once you get it, all the accessories like roof mount, side-building mount, poles, ground mounts will only be for Gen 3. Surely saves you trying to avoid buying the wrong stuff.

For instance, I have WiFi 5 router, I only use it as a bridge to link to my 6e mesh. So, I can’t see the features of the Starlink router But I have learned it will not work with my Gen 2 dish (connections and cables to interface are not the same).

Here’s another interesting feature of Gen 2 and Gen 3 router. Even though you get only one, you can add another. Simply using the app, you can expand your single Starlink router to a mesh system, buying another node and adding it. Its not clearly described, but works.

And there’s router/mesh has a feature I’ve never seen anyone else do. Once you have the router plugged in, and you connect to it with your mobile device via WiFi, you point your mobile device (smartphone) towards the floor and walk around. Wall all around your house and outside - with your smartphone pointing at the floor/ground. While doing this, the screen starts laying out a coverage pattern. It shows you in blue or pinkish tiles where your signal strength is best. Amazing. You can use it to judge if you need to move your router, or maybe add another. No one does anything like this. Its dynamic, as you walk it lays down the tiles, turn 90 degrees and walk, it lays down tiles. Reset and start again anytime. Very very cool.

Questions?

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You don’t sign a contract. You can pause the service. You could pay for the hardware, use it once twice (I think there is a trial period), and expire the trial. Pause your service and pack your system up. Pull it out when you need to use your cell service to turn it back on.

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I had heard about a cap. But they also said it was for some areas, not all areas. It was areas where they had limited bandwidth. And they needed to move some/launch some sats to help.

Remember its an expanding system. Everyone there is learning, as they didn’t come from another commercial company that was launching sats and moving resources to accommodate growth. So, there’s going to be adjustments. I guess I am a little more forgiving.

The first people that were vocal about using the system are RV’ers. They started cutting the shaft off, removing the back of the dish, mounting it permanently on top of their campers, buses and trailers. And accordingly, Starlink started listening to them whine about system performance. At first Starlink was saying it won’t work if you roam. They didn’t have any experience with people moving the disk to different states. They had to learn now to shift coverage and bandwidth.

I think they are imposing a cap on the Mini right now. I am not sure. But if a cap concerns you, you should check with them, not depend on all of us that likely have old news on that subject.

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It’s a satellite. How can there be areas with limited bandwidth? Unless they artificially cap the bandwidth for selected areas.

Well, I am not the expert. Since they have only about 25% of what they want to deploy to orbit, they would have to spread pretty thin the ones they have. And I guess since they don’t have decades of history of usage, there’s going to be some adjustments to move an already widely spread footprint and give all those customers decent speed. I mentioned earlier mine has been 80-90 meg for more than a year. And only recently jumped to 180-190 meg. Its not a fully deployed system yet. They have 6,000 sats in orbit. The target number is 22,000-24,000 bases on the current tech. They are on their 3rd version of the sat. The first was as big as a washing machine. The current is about the size of a compact car. So, the number, the target for total deployed could change as tech changes. Remember, this is worldwide, not just USofA.

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As I said above, they have removed the cap (for now :wink: )

I think I’ll wait a bit for service to stabilize and prices to drop :wink: :wink:

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No. You covered all of my concerns.

Thank you.

If I was more adventurous, lived in the woods, and working, this would be a consideration.

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Welcome. My pleasure. Isn’t it great though, that this tech, this capability is readily available to us? Just think 5 years ago, they were just talking about. Amazon has 1 I think sat up there, but they are still only thinking about it. But not only good for us, but millions of others around the world.

SpaceX’s big plan is to use ā€œthe excuseā€, develop the hardware by building Starlink and use those ships to pay for the establishment of a human base on Mars. Yes, that is ambitious. Yes, its the customer paying for a service and the proceeds of that service being used to benefit humanity. Not some government using our tax dollars. I think I can contribute by being a customer as long as I can. And get some benefit from it as well.

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It is most impressive. Technology is rapidly growing to provide great opportunities. It is amazing that you can communicate anywhere from the surface of our planet. I just hope we can still see the stars at night. :grinning:

Yeah, I recall hearing astronomers being massively upset several years ago because of the light pollution caused by the Starlink satellite deployments.

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Stars? They still thar?

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Yep, you are correct, it was a complaint. And though I don’t think anyone could force them, they changed the colors from shiny to black/dark.

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It’s not so much a coverage issue, but a capacity issue. Starlink has satellites in several different orbital inclinations. That means that some get farther north and south then others. That means that the number of satellites visible from any given spot may very well be different than the number of satellites visible from some other spot.

To have coverage, only takes a single satellite visible from where ever you are. However with only one satellite, you have a far more limited capacity than if you have 20 satellites visible from where ever you are. Let’s say for example (obviously not the case) that at some given time, the entirety of southern California only had one satellite visible. Let’s also say that there are 10,000 Starlink customers in southern California, and each satellite can handle 1 Gb/s of data. Ignoring overhead, each of those 10,000 customers could only get 100 Kb/s. But if there were 50 satellites covering that area, each customer would be far more capacity. And no, I don’t know the actual numbers.

You have likely experienced something similar on the cellular system. Go to a well attended football or baseball game (not an Oakland A’s game where hardly any one shows up). Get there 2 hours before the game starts and your cellphone works great. Half hour after the game starts and you are now sharing the system capacity with 50,000 of your closest friends and the data capacity sucks. Same concept.

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